Estranged (27 page)

They were both silent. Jenna nodded
her head quietly. After a while, Kalei started to re-draw the
swirls on her nails as she asked, “What about you? They told me you
were dead. We had your funeral and everything...”

Jenna pulled her glove back on,
clenching her fists lightly as she said, “Nothin’ so dramatic. I
was at Brandy’s place — you remember Brandy? Anyway, so Landen
shows up in a cop uniform and says somethin’ happened to you guys.
He wasn’ famous yet. Tusic didn’ get big ‘til after E-day. So
Brandy’s parents had no fucking clue he wasn’t a cop. He showed the
badge and everythin’. Anyway, so Brandy’s parents let him take me
to come see you. I mean, why not? They had no fucking way o’
knowin’...” Jenna uncrossed her legs and pulled one knee up to her
chin, resting her head on it for a minute before she went on, “But
he didn’ take me to you guys. He took me to his apartment in the
city. He said you was all dead and he was gonna be my new dad from
here on out. I believed him. Hell, I was twelve, I didn’ know...”
She paused again, watching the grey clouds gather outside the open
window. “All those years...” She tucked her head behind her knee
and started crying. “I’m so sorry, Kalei. It’s my fault, it’s all
my fault...You should never... I’m so sorry, sis.” Her crying
turned to weeping.

Kalei’s swirls were back in place now,
but they began to flex and dance. “Whoa, whoa. What are you talking
about?” Kalei slid down onto the floor in front of her
sister.

Jenna sucked in a sob. “I didn’ know
you were alive... I hated Landen, I hated that he wouldn’ let me
leave the penthouse without a guard, I hated tha’ he wouldn’ let me
be Estranged... He was fuckin’ suffocatin’ me. I told him, if he
would jus’ let me be Estranged, he wouldn’ have ta worry about
anyone hurtin’ me. I would be immortal! Ev’ry year at E-night, he
would go on about how great bein’ an Estranged was. But he wouldn’
let me be one. It was total bullshit! He was never a dad to me,
more like a fuckin’ Warden...”

Kalei kept her silence.

“
So when I was nineteen, I
snuck out and met with some o’ his thugs. I’d been hangin’ out with
them for years at that point. Usually jus’ at the house, but
sometimes, I snuck out an’ caught up with them. They were pretty
cool bout helpin’ me avoid Landen, but I found out later they were
reportin’ back to him on every fuckin’ step I took... what good
friends they were. When I found out, I was pissed. Even sneakin’
out of tha house, I could never be free of that bastard. But if I
could jus’ be Estranged, if I could just get someone to give me a
touch, I could leave and say a big ‘fuck you’ to ‘em all! Of
course, none of Landen’s guys would do it. They was scared shitless
of what Landen would do to ‘em. But one guy, Garron, he wasn’t
scared o’ nothin’. He was just loyal as fuck. And he would...”
Jenna trailed off. The tears came back. She sat there, crying.
Kalei clasped her hands together and held them in her lap. She
stared at her black swirls and wished there was something she could
do to comfort her sister.

Eventually, Jenna silenced her sobs
and sat up straighter. She stared at an abandoned soda can for a
moment and clenched her jaw. Finally, she said, “I touched Garron
when he wasn’ looking. Landen made sure I was there to watch when
he killed him.” Jenna looked down at her hands again and the
muscles in her jaw twitched.

Kalei waited. She picked at the hem of
her shorts. Then she asked, “What does this have to do with
me?”

Jenna looked up at Kalei, her glare
fierce as the corners of her eyes glistened. “You don’ get it, do
you?” She shook her head and looked up at the ceiling. “Landen was
using me to keep Terin off his back. So long as I was Untouched,
SWORDE wouldn’ – it’s my fault Landen dug up Xamic, it’s my fault
your family was attacked, it’s my fault my little sister is a
fucking Estranged!” She picked up the soda can and flung it behind
Kalei.

Kalei heard it clang as it ricocheted
off the beam. “Hey! Whoa, easy there.” The voice was
male.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Making Friends

A young boy, probably in his early
teens, judging by his short, scrawny build and lack of facial hair,
entered the doorway behind Kalei. His dark hair shot out at odd
angles, as though he’d just rolled out of bed. He looked a bit like
a scarecrow beneath his baggy jeans and T-shirt, but he had a
square, somewhat handsome face. If Kalei looked at him from the
neck up, she could believe he was an athlete. She looked down at
his hands to check his nails: full black.

He said, “Sorry to interrupt. It’s
just—you threw the can and I—”

Jenna shouted, “How long have you been
there? You been eavesdropping?”

“
I’ve been here the whole
time, but I wasn’t listening, I promise I—”

Kalei ignored him and asked Jenna,
“What did you mean, ‘Landen dug up Xamic’?”

Jenna glanced over at her sister, but
before she could say anything, the boy interrupted, “Uh, hey.” He
glanced over his shoulder at a pile of decimated electronics.
Phones, computers, keyboards; all piled in one heap. Somewhere
within the mound’s depths, a red light was flashing. The boy looked
back at the girls and said, “You might wanna know, there are some
Wardens coming up the stairs.”

Kalei asked, “You serious?” Before he
could answer, Kalei turned back to Jenna. “SWORDE only uses the
earring for tracking, right?” She and Jenna had torn out the ear
cameras when they escaped Downtown.

“
Yeah. I mean, as far as I
know,” Jenna replied. “But Landen—”

“
Girls,” the boy
interrupted again. “Sorry, but I’ve really got to go. You can come
if you want. I, uh... I’m assuming you don’t want the SWORDE peeps
to find you. But I know a back door we can use... uh, that is, if
you want to come with me.”

Kalei looked at Jenna and shrugged.
She stood up and said, “Alright.”

The boy fidgeted nervously, his eyes
locked on Jenna’s breasts as he said, “Well, it’s not really a back
door so much as a really good hiding place.”

Jenna growled, “Jus’ shuddup and
lead.”

The boy’s eyes snapped up to her face
and he said, “Right! Um, yeah, follow me.” They walked a few steps
past the tarp where Kalei had originally been sitting, then the boy
turned around and offered Jenna his hand. “I’m Josh, by the
way.”

“
What the hell? This ain’t
no time to get high, kid,” Jenna spat.

Josh was abashed. “What? I mean, I
know we can’t touch normal people, but I thought touching other
Estranged is—”

“
Have you ever touched
another Estranged?” Kalei asked.

“
No, I...”

“
Good. Keep it that way.”
She pointed forward and Josh obligingly turned and continued to
lead.

On the other side of the desolate
space, Josh entered the men’s restroom. Jenna glanced at Kalei with
an eyebrow reaching for the ceiling. The two women stopped outside
the broken doorway.

Meanwhile, Josh headed to the second
stall and yanked and pulled on the toilet until finally it moved
free, revealing a hole in the floor. Josh straightened up and ran a
hand through his hair. “Uhh...”

“
What?” Jenna
demanded.

He glanced at them and then quickly
looked away. “I don’t think we can fit more than one person in
there.”

“
Are you serious? You
didn’ think of that before?” Jenna looked like she was about to
strangle the kid.

“
I—well, usually it’s just
me. I didn’t plan on—”

“
You didn’ plan on havin’
two girls walk in on your lovely little shithole of a home?” Jenna
looked him up and down. “I can see why.”

Kalei interjected, “Hey, cut it
out.”

Josh turned red and started studying
the floor tiles. Jenna watched Kalei, crossing her arms and waiting
for her to say something. Kalei glanced from Jenna to Josh. The boy
looked up at them briefly, then hastily turned away to study the
stalls. Kalei turned away and said, “Come on, Jenna. We’ve gotta
get out of here.”

The girls took one step for the door
before Josh blurted out, “There’s another place we could
hide.”

Jenna turned back. “Is it another
hidey-hole excuse to cuddle?”

“
Jenna!”

“
What?”

Josh responded, “No, there’s plenty of
space. I promise.”

A few minutes later, standing on a
six-inch ledge seventy feet above the ground, Kalei had to
acknowledge that there was definitely plenty of space. Perhaps too
much.

The sun was directly above them in a
clear blue sky, creating a bright reflection off the apartment
building across from them. Kalei couldn’t decide which was more
annoying, the blinding light or the steady wind. But then again, it
was an improvement on listening to Jenna bitch at Josh. Kalei had
positioned herself between the two for a reason.

Jenna yelled, “How the hell did he
convince me to get out here?”

“
Shut up! Do you want the
Wardens to hear us?” Kalei called back.

“
What? We’re just a couple
birds squawkin’! Ain’t no one in there can hear us!”

Something below caught Kalei’s eye.
Against her better judgment, she looked down. Far below, three
small ants in SWORDE uniform milled around the entrance, standing
close to their van in case they needed to use it for cover. One of
them looked up. “Shit! They spotted us!”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “No they
didn’t! They can’t see shit from down there!”

The window to Jenna’s left slid open.
“Do you believe me now?” Kalei asked.

“
Shit!”

Josh was already moving. He turned
around on the ledge and reached both hands up to the next ledge
above, pulling himself up to the next floor. He called back, “Come
on!”

Jenna paled. “Aw, shit.”

Kalei laughed. “Look at it this way:
it’s not like you’re going to fall to your death.”

“
I hate you both!” Jenna
replied, latching onto the building and turning herself
around.

At the window, a Warden stuck his head
out, saw Jenna, and shouted, “Hey!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kalei
saw Jenna jump and lose her grip. Kalei’s immediate instinct was to
reach back and help her sister, but she had already pulled her
upper body clear of the next ledge and she couldn’t free up her arm
in time to reach back for her sister. She struggled to pull the
rest of her body onto the ledge, frantically pulling and kicking in
an effort to move faster. When she was finally clear, she looked
back and saw Jenna hugging a gargoyle and yelling at the Warden,
“Fuck you!”

Kalei laughed.

Kalei shifted back from the ledge and
grabbed the windowsill with her left hand, leaning forward to offer
Jenna her right.

Jenna said, “I ain’t no freaking
pansy. Get the fuck out of here.” She grabbed the ledge, stooped as
low as she could without letting go, then launched herself so hard
and so fast that she flew over the ledge, over Kalei, and in
through the open window. She landed on her feet, much to Kalei’s
surprise, then turned around to smile at Kalei and Josh, casually
flopping down on her back. Panting, she said, “I fucking hate
heights.”

Josh and Kalei climbed in after her.
Kalei nudged her sister with her shoe. “Get up. We’re not done yet.
Josh, what’s the quickest way out of here?”

“
Out of here? Wait, we
can’t leave. All of my stuff is here. I—”

Kalei cut him off. “SWORDE knows we’re
in the building. They won’t leave until they’ve turned over every
toilet in this dump. We have to get out.”

Josh stared at her for a moment,
chewing on one corner of his lip as he puzzled something out.
Finally, he said, “Fine, let’s go.” He turned and jogged across the
open space of the barren eighth story. Jenna hopped up onto her
feet and the two followed after him.

Josh found a flight of stairs, glanced
down, and then headed up. Kalei raised an eyebrow, but followed
without question, but Jenna was more vocal with her
objections.

“
No more
heights.”

Josh didn’t look at them as he
continued up the stairs. “No, I just have to grab
something.”

Kalei might have been okay with
following Josh through an odd escape route or two, but she was not
okay with running back into a burning building for the kid’s
blankie. “We don’t have time for your keepsakes. We have to
go.”

He kept climbing. “It’ll just take a
minute.”

“
I don’t care how long it
will take. It’s too long. If you’re so set on rescuing whatever it
is, then tell us the way and we’ll let ourselves out.”

Josh stopped and looked back. “You’d
abandon me like that?”

Jenna replied, “Yup.”

Josh’s face grew serious. “You guys
are cold.”

Jenna laughed and retorted, “We’re
gals. Guys don’t come as cold as us.”

Kalei snorted.

Josh started going back up the stairs.
“Alright, go ahead then, ditch me.”